Few twentieth century
composer-conductors matched Markevitch
in accomplishment and we’re fortunate
that he recorded relatively extensively.
I suppose that his recording of the
Tchaikovsky Symphonies with the LSO
is reckoned to be his greatest discographic
legacy but his commitment to twentieth
century music on record was no less
impressive (his own elaboration of The
Art of Fugue, Dallapiccola, Halfter,
Milhaud, Mompou and Lili Boulanger amongst
them). The Warsaw archives now disclose
live performances from January 1962
of at least two works very close to
his canonical repertoire, the Stravinsky
and Tchaikovsky. They are in many respects
very welcome reminders of his art, not
least to those of us unfortunate enough
never to have seen him conduct in the
concert hall.

He left behind two
commercial recordings of The Rite of
Spring, both with the Philharmonia –
a mono from 1952 and a stereo remake
in 1960. Both were in fine sound for
the time and both had the advantage
of a superb and characterful orchestra.
It’s a curious feature of this 1962
live performance that, compared with
Stravinsky’s own Columbia Symphony recording,
Markevitch is consistently slower than
Stravinsky in Part One and yet consistently
quicker in Part Two. Thus his Part One
Introduction prefers languor and insinuating
romanticism though there’s no loss of
drive and incision in the Mock Abduction
and percussive fissures in The Procession
of the Wise Elders. His Glorification
of the Chosen Victim is dramatic and
of superb clarity and the Sacrificial
Dance every bit as elemental as Stravinsky’s
own. What ought also to be noted however
is the sound. The rather unsubtle and
harsh acoustic works best in this work,
less well elsewhere (it’s certainly
the least pleasing acoustically of the
Warsaw Archive recordings I’ve reviewed).

Romeo and Juliet fares
the worst in this respect. Markevitch’s
instincts are just right; romantic longing
and rhythmic upsurge both timed splendidly;
there is fine overall detail etched
not with a clinician’s eye but rather
with the eye of a superfine controller
of structural incident. There is drama
a-plenty here, in a work of which he
left us a commercial recording, but
the recording is far too cold and raw
to allow much tonal bloom to emerge.
The disc ends with a rather brash and
unstately Britten - it’s rather quick
and lacking in splendour.

If you lack either
of the Rites or an example of Markevitch’s
Tchaikovsky then this will do for now
(with a heavy caveat regarding the unsympathetic
sound, especially for Romeo). Markevitch
is always worth hearing not least in
this kind of repertoire.

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